Towards a Common Universal Ethic: Putnam, Habermas, and Taha Abdurrahman

Abstract

This paper explores three different ethical theories rooted in different cultures and determined by distinct intellectual systems. These models or approaches were put forward by Putnam, Habermas and Taha Abdurrahman, acknowledging the urgency of ethics for contemporary society. All of these approaches are keenly aware of both the cultural contexts which limit ethics in specific societies and also the need for universalist ethics. Insistent on both this universality as well as specificities pertaining to particular cultures, all of these authors emphasized the possibility of a universal ethics which could transcend—if not totally obliterate— these specificities.